


You and Me (against the world)

by darringtons



Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: Fix-It, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-16
Updated: 2017-06-16
Packaged: 2018-11-14 21:46:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11216895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/darringtons/pseuds/darringtons
Summary: We'll take whatever we want / If it was you and me against the world / You get the car, I'll get the cash / We'll take the money and run





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was written mostly before I had caught up on the Flash and LoT, so there are definitely some discrepancies with canon.

The longer Mick had to think about it, the more certain he is that _something was not right_. He couldn’t place his finger on it immediately, and it’s easy enough to dismiss all the weirdness of Len as being a result of being plucked out of 2014. They were different people in 2014.

Time travel was confusing, and he really just wanted to not think about it.

But Len _is_ different, and it’s hard not to think about.

 

“I need your help, kid,” Mick said when Barry Allen entered his apartment.

“What- Who- What are you doing in my apartment?!” It was almost funny, watching the scrawny speedster flail and play dumb as he reached around for something to use as a weapon, like he himself wasn’t a weapon. Almost.

“I’m in no mood for games, _Flash_.”

The kid’s demeanor changes, as though he’s almost glad he doesn’t have to worry about his identity. “So Snart did tell you.”

Mick didn’t flinch. Not visibly, anyway. It still… hurt. “We don’t keep secrets from each other. Didn’t used to, anyway,” he added on as an afterthought.

Not sensing any immediate threat, Barry grabbed a couple beers from the fridge, and offered one to Mick. “So, why the house call?”

“It’s about Lenny.”

Barry gulped down a mouthful of beer, and raised an eyebrow. “I heard he… you know.”

“Yeah. But it’s not about _that_ him. It’s a different Lenny.”

Barry looked confused now, and hell, Mick was confused too. God he hated time travel. “The Legion of Doom grabbed him up out of 2014, from before we joined the Legends.”

“Oh man,” Barry said. Why was his face so damn expressive?

“It was fine, at first. It was good to have him back, you know? And I kinda just thought that the weirdness was because, well, there was whole years that happened between us that didn’t happen for him. Longer.” He has no idea how long, really. Fucking time travel. And all that time in the Vanishing Point, and as Chronos. He has no fucking clue. “Maybe I’m crazy. I shouldn’t’ve come here.” He stood, leaving the bottle still full on the counter.

“But you did,” Barry said, flashing between him and the door. “So talk to me.”

“He’s different,” Mick said. “I can’t tell you how, but he is. The Legion could’ve put some kind of whammy on him, they’ve done it before. Maybe they did it to him.”

“What’s different about him?” Barry pressed.

“I don’t know! I just. Fine- He’s _crueler_. And don’t tell me he always was, because I know he wasn’t. Not like this. I used to be the one who didn’t know where the line was. He was the smart one and I was the angry one. But now he’s crossing lines he never would’ve before. Hurting me is no big deal, it’s not like I expect him to care-”

“Of course he cared about you.”

“Don’t pander to me kid. I know what I am. But he always loved Lisa, never do a thing to hurt her. Until now. He’s _wrong_.”

“He hurt Lisa?” the kid asked, clearly concerned.

Mick shook his head. “Nothing she won’t recover from.”

“Why are you coming to me with this? Why not your team?”

Mick blew out a puff of air. “They don’t trust me. Hell, they’re right not to.”

“And, I’m sorry, but… you think I do?”

“I think you care about him. Enough to do something about it. You just… gotta help me figure out a way to put him right.”

Barry sighed and put his head in his hands. “I don’t know if I can do that.” He took a deep breath. “It may not have been something the Legion did.”

“The who?”

“Me.”

Mick rose to his feet and slammed his fists on the counter. “You?!” he roared.

“It’s not something I did on purpose!” Barry said, throwing his hands up in surrender. “I… went back in time, changed things. Things I didn’t mean to change. I didn’t realize the consequences. And when I tried to fix it… Well, not everything fell back in the right places. Its close, but some things aren’t the same as they were. If you were still traveling the time stream when it happened, you would still remember the way things were, like I do. But your past selves would only have memories of the new timeline. Snart… he might have been changed, and he wouldn’t know it.”

“Fucking time travel.” Mick thought on this for several moments, trying to wrap his head around it. “So you’re saying you went back in time, fucked something up, and now the Lenny I knew, the one I _grew up with_ is just… gone?”

“Maybe.”

“Next time you think about meddling with the timeline, how about you just don’t?” Mick asked angrily.

“I lost something too!” Barry said. “And for what it’s worth: I’m sorry. I’m sorry he died, and I’m sorry this other guy isn’t what you remember.”

Mick snorted mirthlessly and opened the door to leave. “Sorry doesn’t bring my partner back.”


	2. Chapter 2

He’d really fucked up. On top of all the other things that went wrong, now he could add ‘Leonard Snart’ to the pile. In the old timeline he’d been on his path away from super villainy, even died a hero. But that man, by the sounds of it, was gone.

 

Barry Allen was not in the business of making promises he couldn’t keep, and, given recent events, he knew better than to offer hope where there might only be crushing defeat. For that reason, he waited at his window, until he could see Mick Rory walking down the sidewalk away from the apartment building.

Then he ran. To STAR Lbas. To the Time Vault.

 

“Gideon?” he asked. He’d swore he’d never use this resource unless there was no other choice – meddling with time was bad enough without knowing the future, or what it could be.

“Yes, Barry Allen?” her cool, disembodied voice replied.

“You have record of the multiple versions of this timeline that exist, right?”

“Yes.”

“Did I… when I changed the past, was Leonard Snart changed in some way?”

“Unlear. History has next-to no record of the existence of a Leonard Snart.”

“What about Mick Rory? Lisa Snart? Lewis Snart?”

“Mick Rory, born 1969. Multiple arrests for arson, robbery, armed robbery. Lisa Snart, born 1980. Two counts of armed robbery. Lewis Snart, found dead in 2015, by an unknown weapon. Served several prison sentences. What information do you require?”

“I don’t know. I’m not sure what I’m looking for. Let’s try a different approach. Can you tell me anything about the Vanishing Point?”

“The Vanishing Point exists outside of time. It was once the base of the Time Masters, until the destruction of the Oculus at the hands of time travelers from 2016.”

“How does one get to there?”

“You would need a Timeship.”

“Like the Waverider?”

“Yes, or her jump ship.”

“Jump ship?”

“A small shuttle suited for 6 passengers, capable of limited time travel.”

“Do you have access to the schematics? Something I can use to learn how to pilot the jump ship?”

“Of course, but it is unnecessary.”

“Why?”

“Timeships are equipped with Gideon programs to aid in piloting, as well as day-to-day operations.”

Barry nodded thoughtfully. The more Gideon told him, the more plausible his plan started to feel.

“One last thing,” he said after a few moments of thought. “If I find a way to go back and save Leonard Snart at the Oculus… is there a chance that reintroducing him to the timeline will cause some irreparable damage?”

“With the destruction of the Oculus, it is difficult to predict what affect it will have. However, I estimate a 72% probability that the timeline will be safe.”

“Thank you, Gideon.”

 

He sneaks aboard the Waverider, grateful that it was, for the moment, empty, and found his way around to the jump ship. It was rather small, compared to the Waverider, but plenty of space for just him. Besides, he wouldn’t be here long.

“Gideon?” he asked hesitantly.

“Yes, Master Allen?”

“I need to get to the Vanishing Point, is that something you can do for me?”

“Of course.” He heard the engines begin powering up. “I recommend you buckle up, sir.”

 

Getting to the Vanishing Point was easier than Barry had expected. Traveling back in time there? Barry wasn’t even sure if it was possible. Still, he ran circles around the many levels of the Vanishing Point, until even he was tired.

“Gideon?”

“Yes, Master Allen?”

“You said the Vanishing Point exists outside of time. What does that mean, exactly?”

“I do not recall having such a conversation with you. The Vanishing Point exists within a pocket dimension, wherein time does not pass in the same manner as the rest of your universe.”

“So if someone wanted to travel to, say, the moment the Oculus was destroyed…”

“Such travel would be impossible.”

“Damn.”

 

He was missing something.

He paced back and forth around the ruins of the Oculus. He couldn’t travel back in time, because time didn’t really exist here.

He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose. He should’ve brought Stein along. He didn’t have nearly enough knowledge of this place, or this science, to be doing this on his own.

There was something though, something important he was missing, and it was _right there_ at the edge of his mind, he could feel it.

 

“Okay, if time doesn’t pass the same way here, then what’s to prevent everything from happening all at once?”

Gideon didn’t respond for a moment. “Nothing.”

Barry snapped his fingers. “Exactly.”

 

There was a sort of fog around what remained of the Oculus, and if he stared at it long enough, he could swear he could see movement in there, shapes swirling around and around. And when he walked too close, he could hear whispers.

He was beginning to think this place might be driving him mad.

 

“ _There are no strings on me_ ,” the whispers said.

“AHH What does that mean?!” Barry shouted into the abyss. He had been sitting on the floor, his knees pulled to his chest. He was glad he hadn’t brought Stein along now, because he surely looked as mad as he felt.

“ _No strings_ ,” the whispers said again. “ _There are no strings on me_.” And then, “ _Help me. Scarlet._ ”

Barry looked up in shock. Not only was the disembodied voice talking to him now, but he was certain: he knew that voice.

“Snart?”

“ _No strings_. _No strings_.”

 

“Okay, Gideon, hear me out, and stop me if I start to make any sense. This place exists outside of time. Theoretically, everything is happening all at once, but I just can’t see the things that aren’t happening _now_.” No, that surely didn’t make sense. “Snart died months ago, but as far as this place is concerned, he’s still dying right now, right?”

“Theoretically,” Gideon said.

“I just have to find a way to align my present with the present where Snart is dying. Then I can save him.”

“I know of no way to do such a thing.”

“Yeah, me neither.”

 

“ _There are no strings on me._ ”

Barry let out a cry of exasperation. Fine. The universe doesn’t want to be helpful in the slightest?

He does the only thing he knows how to do. He runs.

He runs a right circle around the Oculus this time, ignoring the whole rest of the facility.

The whispers grow louder in his ears, until they were almost screams.

And then it stops.

Barry stops running.

Standing in the center, looking very lost, was Leonard Snart.

“Barry?” he asked, then fell to the floor in a heap.

Barry rushed to him and tried to coax him awake to no avail. His skin was as cold as ice. He scooped him into his arms, and ran back to the jump ship.


	3. Chapter 3

Len woke in a familiar yet unknown location. It looked like the Waverider Med bay, but just slightly off – everything was shifted a few degrees, and the colors were not quite right. “Where am I?”

“Aboard a time ship,” Barry said. “I’m not sure of its name.”

“Scarlet?” Snart asked. “What- how-?”

“What’s your name?” Barry asked.

“You know my name.”

“I need to know that you’re the right version of you. Answer the question.”

“Leonard Snart,” he said with a scowl.

“Where did you get your cold gun?”

“The first one or the second one?”

“Both.”

“Stole it from a crook who stole it from STAR Labs. Bribed Cisco to build the second. Both were built by your puppy.”

“Who are the three most important people in your life?”

“Ha, trick question. There are only two.” He absently moves to spin the ring on his pinky, only to realize it’s not there. Right. He’d slipped it to Mick before… before… “Can we end this game of twenty questions, and maybe tell me what the hell is going on here, kid?”

Barry nodded and took down his mask. “It’s kind of a long story.”

Snart looked around with his hand in the air. There was clearly no one around, no pressing matters to attend to.

“Mick paid me a visit. About you.”

“What are you talking about? I just sent Mick off with the other…” Legends. But no, that wasn’t quite right. It felt like it had happened only moments ago, but it also felt an eternity away.

“No. You’ve been gone for nearly 9 months.”

It hit Len like a brick to the face.

“What do you remember?” Barry asked.

“Purgatory,” Len replied without really thinking about it. “I don’t want to talk about it,” he said when Barry raised an eyebrow for clarification. “So what, they told you I died, and you thought you’d come rescue me, for old time’s sake?”

“I came to rescue you because Mick needs you.”

He was wholly committed to this sacrifice. After all they’d been through, he’d die for Mick a thousand times in a heartbeat. And sticking it to the Time Masters in the process? Just a perk. But he never had stopped to think what affect that might have on Mick.

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Len said.

“I assure you, he’s not. He came to me. _Me_ , of all people. Because he thought I could fix you.” And Barry then told him a truly insane story – a Snart from the past, and joining the Legion of Doom, and his own mistakes with the timeline.

“If Mick cares so much, why isn’t he here?” Mick got on just fine without him. Always did.

Barry gaped at him. “Because he was _broken_. You didn’t see him. I couldn’t give him hope that he’d see you again, not without being sure. Tearing you away from him… I couldn’t be the person to do that to him _again_.”


	4. Hubris

“You’ve got something of mine,” Len said, walking up behind Mick.

“Go to hell,” Mick said, taking a swig of whiskey. He’s not in the mood for this. He never wants to see Len’s stupid face again.

“That’s no way to treat your partner when he comes back from the dead,” Len said in his typical drawl.

“I’m not your partner,” Mick said. “And you sure as hell ain’t mine.”

“Hey,” Len said forcefully, pushing Mick to look at him. “I’m not that fool they dragged out of 2014.”

Mick looked up at him. “You’re not real then.”

Len opened his mouth, then closed it again, confused. He turned from the room, and shouted “Scarlet?!” The Flash appeared at his side in an instant. “Something you forgot to mention?”

The Flash looked between Mick and his bottle a few times, then sighed. “He’s not a hallucination, Rory.”

“ _You_ said there was nothing you could do.”

“I lied,” he said. He looked to Len. “Remember what I said.” And then he left them alone.

“Long story,” Len told Mick. “And I said, you’ve got something of mine.” He tapped the ring on Mick’s pinky.

“Fine, take it,” Mick said, flicking the little ring to him. He rose to his feet, putting distance between them.

“You’re mad at me?”

“Nope. Just don’t care anymore.”

Len scoffed, shaking his head. “I knew Barry was full of shit.” He turned to leave the room.

“Why’d you come back?” Mick asked.

Len stopped. “Because he said… you know what, it doesn’t matter.”

“Your right, it doesn’t. You’re just gonna jump at the next chance to die a hero anyway, aren’t ya.”

Len turned and gaped at him. “Do you really think I give a damn about any of that?”

“Of course you do. Didn’t used to.”

Len shook his head. “You really think I’d go through… that, for _them_? I didn’t; I did it for _you_ ,” he said, enunciating it with a forceful finger to Mick’s chest. “I died so you wouldn’t have to.”

“Bullshit.”

“Believe what you want. And you know what, maybe it was selfish of me. I make a lot of selfish decisions where you’re concerned.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Couldn’t leave you in 2046. Couldn’t kill you, even if it would’ve been better for us both if I had. Couldn’t let you go, not ever.”

“You were damn good at pushing me away.”

“Yeah.”

They were silent for a long moment.

“Look, I get you’re pissed at me. But we can’t stay here.”

“I like this bar,” Mick said.

Len smiled. “I know. But the kid says if we stay in 2017 too long, the timeline changes will start to take hold in our minds.”

“You saying we’ll start to forget shit?”

“Something like that.”

“And you wanna go back to the Legends? ‘Cause I’m pretty sure they don’t want me.”

Len shook his head, and tugged Mick toward the exit. “Not exactly.”

Outside, waiting for them in an empty field, was the timeship Stormbird.

“Anywhere in time and space. Just not here. What do you think?” Len asked.

“Just us?”

“Just us. Think we can handle it?”

“You think it can handle us?” Mick corrected.

 

“Where did you even get this ship?”

“You know, I didn’t ask, but I think _Barry Allen stole it._ ”

Mick hummed. “Maybe they’re hope for him yet.”


End file.
